''Caulerpa sertularioides'', also known as green feather algae, is a species of seaweed in the ''

Caulerpaceae Caulerpaceae is a family of green algae in the order Bryopsidales Bryopsidales is an order of green algae, in the class Ulvophyceae. It is a diverse group of mostly marine macroalgae. Characteristics The thallus is filamentous, highly branch ...

'' family found in warm water environments.

Description

The seaweed has a pale to dark-green

thallus Thallus (: thalli), from Latinized Greek (), meaning "a green shoot" or "twig", is the vegetative tissue of some organisms in diverse groups such as algae, fungi, some liverworts, lichens, and the Myxogastria. A thallus usually names the entir ...

that typically grows to outward to around . It has feather-like fronds that arise from a common stolon. Each of the fronds is upright and branched. The oppositely arranged branchlets are cylindrical to needle-shaped with upcurved tips with a blunt point at the end. Each branchlet has a length of and is attached to a cylindrical axis in the middle with a diameter of . Each axis connects each frond to a creeping

stolon In biology, a stolon ( from Latin ''wikt:stolo, stolō'', genitive ''stolōnis'' – "branch"), also known as a runner, is a horizontal connection between parts of an organism. It may be part of the organism, or of its skeleton. Typically, animal ...

with a diameter of and a length of up to . Stolons are branched out to slim points and

rhizoid Rhizoids are protuberances that extend from the lower epidermal cells of bryophytes and algae. They are similar in structure and function to the root hairs of vascular land plants. Similar structures are formed by some fungi. Rhizoids may be un ...

s then form from bottom surface these fork and penetrate the sandy substrate firmly anchoring the seaweed to the seafloor.

Taxonomy

The species was first formally described by the botanist and taxonomist

Marshall Avery Howe Marshall Avery Howe (June 6, 1867 in Newfane, Vermont1000 Men
by Dorman Bridgman Eaton K ...

in 1905 as part of the work ''Phycological studies - II. New Chlorophyceae, new Rhodophyceae and miscellaneous notes'' as published in the ''Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club''. The

basionym In the scientific name of organisms, basionym or basyonym means the original name on which a new name is based; the author citation of the new name should include the authors of the basionym in parentheses. The term "basionym" is used in both botan ...

is ''Fucus sertularioides'' as described by

Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin Samuel George Gottlieb Gmelin (4 July 1744 – 27 July 1774) was a German physician, botanist, and explorer. Background Gmelin was born at Tübingen as part of a well-known family of naturalists. His father was Johann Conrad Gmelin, an apotheca ...

in 1768.

Distribution

The species is found widely through tropical waters. In the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

it is found from North Carolina to Florida. It is also found throughout the Caribbean around Bermuda, Bahamas, Greater and Lesser Antilles and in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

and in the southern

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

to Brazil (Taylor 1979). It is also found in the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

along the

Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...

in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines and Palau. In Western Australia, it is found along the coast in the

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...

region extending south to the

Gascoyne The Gascoyne region is one of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is located in the northwest of Western Australia, and consists of the local government areas of Carnarvon, Exmouth, Shark Bay and Upper Gascoyne. The Gascoyne has about of ...

. The species is usually part of coastal and estuarine environments where it grows in sandy areas, as seagrass beds or on and around

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

roots. It is mostly found as a shallow-water specimen to depths of around although sparse individuals have been taken from depths of up to .

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q41804902 sertularioides Species described in 1905